Hot pitch or asphalt sprayer



Oct. 8, 1963 ETAL HOT PITCH OR ASPHALT SPRAYER J- BAIRD, JR.,

2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Sept. 29, 1961 rllllllllllll HI Ma i FIG I INVENTOR.

JAMES BAIRD JR. a

BY CALVIN C. BAIRD y 0mg ATTORNEYS Oct. 8, 1963 J, BAIRD, JR., ETAL HOT PITCH OR ASPHALT SPRAYER Filed Sept. 29, 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 2- FIG 6 IN VENTOR.

' 45 7 JAMES BAIRD JR. a

BY CALVIN C. BAIRD MM+M FIG 3 ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,106,344 HOT PITCH 0R ASPHALT SPRAYER James Baird, Jr., and Calvin C. Baird, Cleveland, Ohio, assign'ors to Industrial Roofing & Sheet Metal, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Filed Sept. 29, 1961, Ser. No. 141,649 8 Claims. (Cl. 239130) This invention relates generally, as indicated, to a hot pitch or asphalt sprayer and more particularly to a mobile dispenser for hot roofing materials greatly facilitating the application thereof.

Hot pitch or asphalt is generally transported to a roofing site in large chunks where it is then melted to produce a fiowable hot material which is carried to the roof in buckets and distributed manually with glass fiber mops or the like. The roof structure is generally applied in layers, one of such layers including a glass fiber or like mat which is embedded in the hot pitch or asphalt. With the complex and cumbersome handling methods for such bulky, heavy and hot pitch or asphalt and with the manual appli cation thereof to the roof, it has been found that an eight man roofing crew can lay only 200 square feet of roof in one day.

It is accordingly a principal object of the present invention to provide a hot pitch or asphalt dispenser which will greatly facilitate the application of such roofing materials.

It is a further main object to provide a mobile sprayer or dispenser for hot pitch or asphalt which will facilitate the application of such materials to large roof areas in relatively short periods.

It is a still further object to provide such sprayer which is of simplified construction and of a weight which will easily permit it to be lifted onto a roof to be moved thereover.

It is another object to provide a spraying apparatus and system which will facilitate the application of such hot pitch or asphalt to large roof areas in a uniform coating in a relatively short period of time.

It is yet another object to provide a unique pumping and spraying system and apparatus for such hot pitch or asphalt which will greatly facilitate the application thereof to large roof areas.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent as the following description proceeds.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, the invention, then, comprises the features hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims, the following description and the annexed drawings setting forth in detail certain illustrative embodiments of the invention, these being indicative, however, of but a few of the various ways in which the principle of the invention may be employed.

In said annexed drawings:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation of a sprayer in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an end elevation of such sprayer as seen from the left in PEG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary view of the pump and drive mechanisms therefor;

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 3 illustrating a slightly modified control for the discharge of the pump;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary detail view taken substantially on the line 55 of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary side elevation on a somewhat reduced scale of the spray bar of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a vertical section on a somewhat enlarged scale taken substantially on the line 77 of FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is an end elevation of the spray bar as seen from the right in FIG. 6;

FIG. 9 is a fragmentary side elevation of a somewhat modified form of spray bar in accordance with the present invention; and

FIG. 10 is a fragmentary sectional view taken substantially on the line 1010 of FIG. 9.

Referring now to the annexed drawings and more particularly to FIGS. 1 and 2, there is shown a vehicle which is comprised of a frame 2 supporting a container 3. The container 3 may preferably be in the form of a cylindrical tank as shown having insulated walls with the container being supported on the frame by means of a strap or continuous member 4 of material such as steel which is fastened to each end of the tank or container 3 by brackets shown at 5 and 6. The strap 4 thus has its ends secured in any suitable manner to the ends of the container 3 and the center of the strap is bowed downwardly away from the bottom of the container and is secured to a channel member 7 which is in back-to-back relationship with a channel member 8 on the frame 2 and the two channel members may be held together by a suitable pin connec tion as shown by the pin P. Lubricants or the like may be placed between the two channel members to provide a horizontal swinging movement of the container 3 on the frame 2 about a vertically extending axis provided by the channel pivots 7, 8. The frame includes downwardly extending portions 10 and 11 which support the frame on axle 12 of laterally spaced wheels 13 and 14 at one end of such frame. At the opposite end, the frame has an upwardly offset portion 15 with a vertical axis pivot 16 on the distal end thereof. A caster wheel 17 is secured to such pivot by means of a U-shape inclined clevis 18.

An inclined U-shape handle 20 is secured to the frame 2 and it will readily be understood that the operator grasping the horizontal top portion 21 thereof may easily push or pull the vehicle along the roof surface R. The caster effect of the wheel 17 ensures that the mobile spraying unit can easily be steered to be turned around with a zero turning radius. The frame 2 may be composed of suitable angle or channel members secured together in a conventional manner to form a rigid and durable frame supporting the container 3 through the channel pivots 7, 8. Whereas a manually propelled unit is illustrated, it will be realized that a self-propelled unit (not shown) may equally well be provided.

The tank-like container 3 may be provided with insulated walls as shown at 25 and the end wall 26 is provided with a longitudinal extension v27 which has a top access opening 28 which may be removed to facilitate the insertion in liquid form of the hot pitch or asphalt. On the opposite end wall 29 at the bottom thereof, there is provided a drain valve 30 which may be employed to drain any of the unused portion of the liquids in the con tainer therefrom. Since it will be realized that the material employed with the present invention solidifies when cooled, at the completion of the spraying operation any unused material must be removed from the container to permit subsequent operation.

The container 3 is also provided with a top central opening 32 which has fitted thereover a saddle or like cover 33 with an extension 34 there-on mounting a pump drive unit 35. In the illustrated embodiments, the pump drive unit is shown as a gasoline driven engine with the cylinder thereof extending horizontally as shown at 36. The drive shaft of the engine 37 may be connected to the drive shaft 38 of the pump by means of a clutch 3? which may be actuated by either lever 40 or 41. Each of the levers actuates respective yoke structures 42 and 43 which will cause one element of the clutch to engage with the other or driven element thus to drive the pump 45 at the bottom of the container 3. The pump 45 may be mounted on a bracket 46 which may extend downwardly from the mounting plate 47 mounted on top of 3 the extension 34 or from the plate 61 in the FIG. 3 embodiment. Accordingly, the power unit 35 and the pump and bracket therefor can be mounted on the container 3 quickly and easily and removed for cleaning purposes when desired.

The pump 45 may, for example, be a volute centrifugal pump having a downwardly directed inlet 43 and a horizontally directed outlet 49, which extends upwardly through conduit 59 then outwardly through conduit 51 and finally downwardly through conduit 52 along the vehicle to spray bar 53 shown in detail in FIG. 6. A support bracket 54 may be employed extending between the conduit 52 and the side of the container 3. Whereas a gasoline driven motor 35 is illustrated which can easily be started by a cord or the like placed about the shaft extension 55, it will readily be understood that an electric motor or air driven motor may equally well be employed. It can now be seen that liquid hot pitch or asphalt placed within the opening 28 can be pumped from the containe 3 by means of the pump 45 to be sprayed from the spray bar shown in FIG. 6 which will be at the side of the vehicle mounted on the container 3 for pivotal movement therewith about the vertical axis pivot P.

As seen in FIG. 3 with the drive unit detached, the pump shaft 38 may be mounted in a hearing or the like 60 mounted on support plate 61 with the support bracket 46 being secured to the mounting plate 61 as shown at 62. The upper end of the pump shaft may be splined to receive the slidable clutch element actuated by the clutch yoke structures 42 or 43. In this manner, the pump unit may be positioned on top of the saddle 33 and the drive unit positioned on top of the extension 34.

Referring now to FIGS. 4 and 5, there is shown a modified form of control of the discharge of the pump wherein the motor 35 mounted on the plate 47 may have its drive shaft 37 coupled directly to the drive shaft 38 of the pump as shown at 64. The pump support bracket 46 may then be secured directly to the plate 47 and the pump 45 Will otherwise be identical in form. However, the outlet of the pump is provided with a butterfly valve 65, the butterfly element 66 of which is controlled through an arcuateshape linkage 67. The butterfly valve inlet is connected directly to the outlet 49 of the pump and such valve has two outlets, one 68 leading back to the inside of the container and the other 69 leading to the conduit t). The arcuate lever 67 is pivotally connected to a valve operating rod 70 as shown at 71 and such operating rod extends through the plate 47 and is provided with a hmdle or knob 72. The operating rod 70 is also provided with a counterweight 73 and the discharge of the pump into the conduit 50 may be controlled by such valve. When the butterfly element is closed, all of the discharge of the pump will pass through the conduit to the spray bar 53 and when the butterfly element is open, all of the discharge of the pump will pass back into the container 3. The unique arcuate valve operating lever may provide a toggle linkage which, when the lever is pulled up, will move the pivot 71 over the pivot of the butterfly valve element 66 so that the weight 73 will hold the valve in its opened or closed position as desired. The counterweight 73 in addition to holding the valve either open or closed will assure a quick return to open position when the operating rod is dropped to the full line position shown. In addition to or instead of the toggle linkage shown, an arresting bar or latch may be employed as shown at 74 which is mounted on the plate 47 to keep the valve open. In the FIGS. 4 and 5 embodiment, the pump motor will be running continuously as will the pump 45. The FIG. 4 embodiment may be employed where it is desired to keep the fluid within the container circulating even though not being used.

Since the spray bar 53 will be positioned beneath the level of liquid in the container 3, a vent 75 may be employed as shown in FIG. 3 which may be selectively connected to the conduit Si) by means of a valve 76 so that when the supply of fluid is no longer desired to be placed upon the roof, the siphoning effect will not continue to deposit such fluid thereon. The vent may be employed in both the FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 embodiments if desired.

Referring now to FIG. 6, it will be seen that the spray bar may be coupled to the conduit 52 as shown at 33 and the spray bar, itself, comprises a suitable tube of sufficient diameter to allow a controlled amount of the liquid to flow from the conduit 52 through four openings 81, 82, 83 and 84 in the bottom of the tube onto four hemispherical plates 85, 86, 87 and 88, each of which is supported directly beneath the respective opening by a bracket or the like 89 which may be welded or otherwise suitably secured to the bottom of the tube adjacent the respective openings. Rod type hangers 90 and 91 may be mounted on each end of the spray bar, with such hangers supporting spray shields or curtains 92 and 93 of any suitable material such as paper, metal, plastic, etc. so that the spray will be confined to a definite area as the vehicle is moved along the roof. The hanger 91 may be supported on a bar 94 welded or otherwise suitably secured to the top of the distal end of the spray bar 53. The end of the spray bar may be plugged as shown and it will, of course, be understood that the openings 81 through 84 as well as the dimensions of the deflectors 85 through 88 may carefully be chosen so that a uniform coating of such hot pitch or asphalt will be deposited on the area of the roof in question. The openings will preferably increase in diameter since the pressure provided at the end of the spray bar will be somewhat less than at the opening 81. As the hot fluid issues from the openings, it will deflect from the hemispherical deflectors to be distributed over a wide area properly to coat the surface beneath the spray bar as the vehicle is moved along the roof.

Whereas the hot pitch or asphalt with which the present invention is designed to be employed will maintain itself in a fluid condition after being melted for a considerable length of time, it may be desirable to stop operation for as much as an hour while the crew eats lunch or for some other reason, and during this period, the fluid within the container 3 will generally maintain a suflioient temperature to remain in a liquid condition. However, the fluid in the spray bar or conduit will cool more rapidly than the fluid in the container and for this reason, a modification of the spray bar as seen in FIGS. 9 and 10 may be employed. In such modification, the conduit 52 may be provided with a bypass valve 95 which has outlets leading either to the spray bar 53 or to a heating jacket 96. The spray bar 53 in this embodiment is identical in form to the spray bar of FIG. 6 and the addition of the heating jacket 96 to the topof the spray bar may readily be facilitated by the addition of a tubular member which will expose the fluid therein to the top surface of the spray bar. In this manner, when the operator stops for lunch, he may set th valve 95 to circulate the fluid through the jacket 96 and then back through return conduit 97 to the container 3. Fluid will not then be left standing in the conduit 52 or in the spray bar 53 to harden and the continued circulation of the fluid through the jacket 96 will maintain the temperature of the fluid as a whole sufliciently warm to maintain it in a liquid condition. Should the liquid become hardened, it will take a blow torch or the like to free the liquid so that it can again be circulated through the various conduits.

It can now be seen that there is provided a device of simplified construction which will readily dispense the hot pitch or asphalt over a large roof area in a minimum amount of time.

With the channel pivots 7, 3 provided for the container and spray bar, the operator can lay a relatively wide layer of the sprayed material and then by turning the frame around and also the container can move back along the same strip continuing the same pushing or pulling action with the spray bar positioned on the opposite side. In

this manner, the operator will always be walking on a V non-sprayed area and by either pushing or pulling the unit, the operator can spray close to the edge of the roof with little manual application of the material being required. The pivot feature plusthe dual control for the clutch readily facilitates the quick application of the sprayed material to the roof area.

Other modes of applying the principle of the invention may be employed, change being rnade as regards the details described, provided the features stated in any of the following claims or the equivalent of such be employed.

We, therefore, particularly point out and distinctly claim as our invention:

1. A dispenser for hot pitch, asphalt and the like comorifices onto such roof or like surface or back to said container.

2. A dispenser as set forth in claim 1 wherein said spray bar comprises a horizontally extending tubular member having downwardly directed spray orifices therein, a bypass valve in the conduit leading to said spray bar, a heating jacket adjacent said spray bar connected to said bypass valve, and a return conduit leading from said heating jacket to said container, said bypass valve selectively directing such fluid to said heating jacket or said spray bar. i

3. A dispenser for hot roofing materials comprising a frame, an axle at one ed of said frame supporting a pair of wheels, a pivotally mounted caster wheel at the opposite end of said frame, handle means on said frame whereby said frame may be pushed or pulled along a roof or the like, a container mounted on said frame for horizontal swinging movement about a vertically extending axis, a motor-pump unit mounted on said container with said motor being on top of said container driving said pump adjacent the bottom of said container, conduit means leading from said container to a spray bar or the like extending laterally of said dispenser adjacent such roof and having a plurality of discharge orifices therein, means fixedly mounting said spray bar to the side of said container for horizontal swinging movement therewith, said spray bar thus extending selectively to either side of said frame, and means selectively to cause said pump to force fluid within said container to said spray, bar to deposit such fluid through such orifices in a layer on such roof.

4. A dispenser as set forth in claim 3 including a motor drive shaft and a pump drive shaft, and clutch means selectively operable to engage said motor and pump drive shafts. V

5. A dispenser as set forth in claim 3 wherein said spray bar comprises a horizontally extending tube with such discharge orifices being in the, bottom of said tube,

and deflector means positioned beneath each said discharge orifice adapted to distribute the fluid discharged therethrough over a substantial roof area.

6. A dispenser as set forth in claim 5 including a heating jacket positioned on top of said spray bar, and valve means operable to direct such fluid through said heating jacket and back to said container to maintain the temperature of said heating bar sufficiently high to maintain thematerial therein in liquid condition.

7. A dispenser for hot roofing materials comprising a frame, an axle at one end of said frame supporting a pair of wheels, a pivotally mounted caster wheel at the opposite end of said frame, handle means on said frame where. by said frame may be pushed or pulled along a roof or the like, a container mounted on said frame for horizontal swinging movement about a vertically extending axis, a motor-pump unit mounted on said container with said motor being on top of said container driving said pump adjacent the \bottom of said container, conduit means leading from said container to a spray bar or the like extending laterally of said dispenser, means fixedly mounting said spray bar to the side of said container for horizontal swinging movement therewith, means selectively to cause said pump to force fluid within said container to said spray bar to deposit such fluid in a layer on such roof, a butterfly valve in the outlet ofsaid pump, said butterfly valve having an outlet leading to said spray bar and an outlet leading to said container, an arcuate operat-' ing lever for said butterfly valve, handle means connected to said arcuate operating lever extending outwardly of said container, weight means on said handle means connected to said arcuate operating lever adapted to ensure fast actuation of said butterfly valve, and means selectively to hold said handle means connected to said arcuate operating lever and thus said butterflyvalve in a desired position directing such fluid either to said spray bar or to said container.

8. A dispenser for hot pitch, asphalt and the like comprising a frame, roof or like surface engaging wheel means supporting said frame, a container mounted on said frame for swinging movement about a vertical axis, a laterally directed spray bar extending adjacent such surface mounted on said container for swinging movement therewith,

said spray bar thus extending selectively to either side of said frame, a plurality of spaced discharge orifices in said bar, pump means operative to pump fluid from said container to said laterally directed spray bar, a heating jacket adjacent said spray bar, and mean selectively to direct fluid from said pump through said heating jacket and back to said tank or to said spray bar for distribution through such orifices onto such roof or the like.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 599,330 Hale Feb. 22, 1898 1,694,806 Yale Dec. 1 1, 1928 2,123,604 Johnson July 12, 1938 2,367,594 Madison Jan. 16, 1945 2,587,965 Campbell Mar. 4, 1952 2,768,859 Patterson Oct. 30, 1956 2,802,601 Berry Aug. 13, 1957 3,001,720 Cartwright Sept. 26, 1961 

1. A DISPENSER FOR HOT PITCH, ASPHALT AND THE LIKE COMPRISING A FRAME, ROOF OR LIKE SURFACE, ENGAGING WHEEL MEANS SUPPORTING SAID FRAME, A CONTAINER MOUNTED ON SAID FRAME FOR SWINGING MOVEMENT ABOUT A VERTICAL AXIS, A LATERALLY DIRECTED SPRAY BAR EXTENDING ADJACENT SUCH SURFACE MOUNTED ON SAID CONTAINER FOR SWINGING MOVEMENT THEREWITH, SAID SPRAY BAR THUS EXTENDING SELECTIVELY TO EITHER SIDE OF SAID FRAME, A PLURALITY OF SPACED DISCHARGE ORIFICES IN SAID SPRAY BAR, PUMP MEANS ADAPTED TO PUMP FLUID FROM SAID CONTAINER TO SAID LATERALLY DIRECTED SPRAY BAR, AND MEANS SELECTIVELY TO DIRECT SUCH FLUID FROM SAID PUMP TO SAID SPRAY BAR FOR DISTRIBUTION THROUGH SUCH ORIFICES ONTO SUCH ROOF OR LIKE SURFACE OR BACK TO SAID CONTAINER. 